General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA ASI), has announced that through a contract with the Missile Defense Agency (MDA), it executed a missile tracking test as part of the Pacific Dragon (PD) exercise held June 26-28 off the coast of the Pacific Missile Range Facility (PMRF) in Kauai, Hawaii. Continue reading
Category Archives: Military UAS
DARPA Wants Ideas for Protecting Against sUAS
The rapid evolution of small unmanned air systems (sUAS) technologies is fuelling the exponential growth of the commercial drone sector, creating new asymmetric threats for warfighters. sUASs’ size and low cost enable novel concepts of employment that present challenges to current defense systems.
Elbit Systems Introduces Maritime Skylark C
Elbit Systems has developed the Skylark C, a new highly autonomous Mini Unmanned Aircraft System (Mini-UAS) specifically designed and built for maritime applications. Continue reading
USAF to Provide More Pay, Bases for RPAS
The US Air Force is about to take two more major steps as part of its “get well” program for the remotely piloted aircraft enterprise—a big pay boost for RPA pilots and new operating bases for the aircraft. Continue reading
UK Royal Navy to Assess ScanEagle Replacement
The Royal Navy is looking towards the Unmanned Warrior exercise that will take place later this year to assess “all options” for the replacement of its Boeing/Insitu ScanEagle unmanned air vehicles, which will go out of service in late 2017. Continue reading
US Navy Deploys RQ-20B AeroVironment Puma AE
AeroVironment, Inc. announced the United States Navy has tested and deployed the RQ-20B Puma small unmanned aircraft system (UAS) aboard a Flight I Guided Missile Destroyer (DDG Class). Some of these exercises included the use of AeroVironment’s fully autonomous system to recover the aircraft aboard a ship. The US Navy issued a report on August 3 from the Arabian Gulf describing how Puma AE is also being utilized (see “US Ships Utilize Small Eye in the Sky”) on Navy Patrol Craft.
Spain to Join European MALE 2020 UAV Project
Spain has taken is first concrete step towards joining the pan-European military unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) programme with the cabinet approving an initial instalment to cover set-up costs.
Insitu Gets $8M US Navy ScanEagle Support Contract
Insitu Inc. is being awarded $8,291,844 for firm-fixed-price delivery order 0062 against a previously issued basic ordering agreement (N00019-12-G-0008) to procure spares, support equipment, and support services for the ScanEagle Unmanned Aircraft System operations for the government of Iraq intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance services program.